Post by Hohn on Nov 23, 2006 17:47:48 GMT -7
OK fellas, turns out my Rectifier Recording preamp actually works with the Stang Ray quite well.
But the Stang, revealing as it is, has really demonstrated some shortcomings of the Rectifier Recording preamp. The three clean channels on the preamp all sound pretty good, and add a nice variety of flavor to the Stang's cleans while preserving the goodness of the basic tone.
But the dirty channels are another story. The three modes on the dirty side are all almost equally useless. The "raw" mode is much lower gain the the other two modes: "vintage" which is more or less a MkIIc dirty, and "modern" which is some kind of scooped mid junk from a Rectifier Solo Head.
For certain styles, the bite of the Boogie dirty side is supreme. For example, a Kravitz-esque tone like on his rendition of "American Woman" this thing nails it dead on.
I've been able to nail down exactly what the problem is. The problem is that there's no progression to the buzz on top. The dirty channel goes from 0 distortion to 10 with no crossover!! It's a step function, like a digital thing. It's almost like a noise gate-- it's either in or out. The distortion has a very hard clip to it, almost solid-state like, which defeats the whole point of tubes to begin with!
So are there ways to address this with different 12ax7 family preamp tubes? I have to think that the circuitry alone can't clip so hard and so soon. Maybe some lower gain tubes? This thing has WAY too much gain, to where anything past noon is unuseable. Perhaps lower gain tubes would be a good way to smooth things out. Maybe a 5751? 12at7?
What about just using better quality 12ax7s?? I suspect that simply retubing the thing with better tubes is all it takes to get some better tone from it. Since the new Tung Sols are priced pretty reasonably, maybe that's a good option?
Any help is sincerely appreciated..
Justin
But the Stang, revealing as it is, has really demonstrated some shortcomings of the Rectifier Recording preamp. The three clean channels on the preamp all sound pretty good, and add a nice variety of flavor to the Stang's cleans while preserving the goodness of the basic tone.
But the dirty channels are another story. The three modes on the dirty side are all almost equally useless. The "raw" mode is much lower gain the the other two modes: "vintage" which is more or less a MkIIc dirty, and "modern" which is some kind of scooped mid junk from a Rectifier Solo Head.
For certain styles, the bite of the Boogie dirty side is supreme. For example, a Kravitz-esque tone like on his rendition of "American Woman" this thing nails it dead on.
I've been able to nail down exactly what the problem is. The problem is that there's no progression to the buzz on top. The dirty channel goes from 0 distortion to 10 with no crossover!! It's a step function, like a digital thing. It's almost like a noise gate-- it's either in or out. The distortion has a very hard clip to it, almost solid-state like, which defeats the whole point of tubes to begin with!
So are there ways to address this with different 12ax7 family preamp tubes? I have to think that the circuitry alone can't clip so hard and so soon. Maybe some lower gain tubes? This thing has WAY too much gain, to where anything past noon is unuseable. Perhaps lower gain tubes would be a good way to smooth things out. Maybe a 5751? 12at7?
What about just using better quality 12ax7s?? I suspect that simply retubing the thing with better tubes is all it takes to get some better tone from it. Since the new Tung Sols are priced pretty reasonably, maybe that's a good option?
Any help is sincerely appreciated..
Justin